[BNM] Pagination design/UX questions
Jay Caines-Gooby
really like to have the titles or letters of the results in the
pagination links rather than just the standard 1 2 3 ... 8 9 style
clickable links.
A simple solution would be to use the letters A B C ... X Y Z but this
assumes that you have a good spread of results across each letter. If
we're retuning 100 results all beginning with A then the pagination
becomes
A A A ... A A A which is obviously no use. We've tried Aa Ab Ac ... Ad
Ae style links but this still seems almost as little use as regular
numbering. Any good best-practive tips or design patterns for this?
--
Jay Caines-Gooby
j...@gooby.org
+44 (0)7956 182625
skype: jaygooby
gtalk: jayg...@gmail.com
AIM: jaygooby
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Wayne Douglas
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Jay Caines-Gooby
> Have you looked at yahoo pattern lib?
Yep. But most people focus on numbered pagination specifically, e.g.
http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/pattern.php?pattern=searchpagination
and http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/11/16/pagination-gallery-examples-and-good-practices/
which isn't what I'm after.
Julian Blundell
something like dots for pages with no change?
e.g.
Aa . . Ab . Ac etc.
Jules
2009/1/28 Jay Caines-Gooby <j...@gooby.org>
alex
if you start mixing different styles it could easily become confusing
Ab Ag Am B C G Ma Mo Z
could you just display the first letters and then if more than a certain
number of results is returned, display a sub pagination menu with the second
letter?
alex =]
2009/1/28 Jay Caines-Gooby <j...@gooby.org>
Jay Caines-Gooby
> Perhaps look for a change in beginning letters and paginate on that with
> something like dots for pages with no change?
> e.g.
> Aa . . Ab . Ac etc.
We're hoping to get more context in the pagination links (perhaps even
the name of the first result on that page) rather than just the first
few letters, but then it becomes a design challenge...
--
Jay Caines-Gooby
j...@gooby.org
+44 (0)7956 182625
twitter: jaygooby
Wayne Douglas
On 1/28/09, Jay Caines-Gooby <j...@gooby.org> wrote:
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Sent from my mobile device
Jay Caines-Gooby
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:10 PM, Julian Blundell <o...@w34u.com> wrote:
>> Perhaps look for a change in beginning letters and paginate on that with
>> something like dots for pages with no change?
>> e.g.
>> Aa . . Ab . Ac etc.
>
> We're hoping to get more context in the pagination links (perhaps even
> the name of the first result on that page) rather than just the first
> few letters, but then it becomes a design challenge...
DNS Made Easy have a solution of sorts:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaygooby/3234046660/
But I'm not keen on the select list...
Stuart Lamour
best way to display the results ?
Can they be classified in some other way ?
don't agree with everything in this, but food for thought -
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/03/alphabetical-or.html
Cennydd
controls, and that to me looks like trouble. What's the user goal?
a) To find results by alphabetical order? (i.e. I want the result that
starts "Ro…")
b) Skim through results until they find one that looks relevant?
If a), an A-Z index, or even a wildcard search would be appropriate.
Paginate within that set of results (e.g. Now viewing A… Pages 1–5).
If b) regular numbered pagination or some other browsable interface
would be preferable.
Rather cursory thoughts I'm afraid, but you never know, they may help.
Cennydd Bowles
User Experience Designer
Clearleft
On Jan 28, 11:55 am, Jay Caines-Gooby <j...@gooby.org> wrote:
> When returning an alphabetically sorted large set of results, we'd
> really like to have the titles or letters of the results in the
> pagination links rather than just the standard 1 2 3 ... 8 9 style
> clickable links.
>
> A simple solution would be to use the letters A B C ... X Y Z but this
> assumes that you have a good spread of results across each letter. If
> we're retuning 100 results all beginning with A then the pagination
> becomes
>
> A A A ... A A A which is obviously no use. We've tried Aa Ab Ac ... Ad
> Ae style links but this still seems almost as little use as regular
> numbering. Any good best-practive tips or design patterns for this?
>
> --
> Jay Caines-Gooby
> j...@gooby.org
> +44 (0)7956 182625
> skype: jaygooby
Danny Hope
> When returning an alphabetically sorted large set of results, we'd
> really like to have the titles or letters of the results in the
> pagination links rather than just the standard 1 2 3 ... 8 9 style
> clickable links.
>
> A simple solution would be to use the letters A B C ... X Y Z but this
> assumes that you have a good spread of results across each letter. If
> we're retuning 100 results all beginning with A then the pagination
> becomes
>
> A A A ... A A A which is obviously no use. We've tried Aa Ab Ac ... Ad
> Ae style links but this still seems almost as little use as regular
> numbering. Any good best-practive tips or design patterns for this?
How about this:
A B—Bl Bm—Bz C D E F G—K L,M,N O P (Q) R S T U V W X Y Z
*Further Explaination*
1 page per initial:
A
C D E F
Page splits for popular initials:
B—Bl
Bm—Bz
2 or more letters per page:
G—K
or: l,M,N
Zero results: (Q) [dimmed but possibly still active]
Showing whole alphabet will help people grok the model, i.e.
alphabetical-by-initial not numerical-by-page.
Long results pages can make pagination cleaner and aid in quick navigation.
Hope this makes sense.
--
Regards,
Danny Hope
Twitter: yandle
07595 226 792
Jay Caines-Gooby
Thanks for this. Yep, agreed that its important to show the whole
alphabet, even for those with no results. I like the variation where
you split popular letters into to two or more sections. Hmm. I wonder
how confusing it is for the pagination model to change in this way
though (i.e. you might used to seeing A B C D, but then one day you
make too many Bs and suddenly you start to see A Ba Be C D). Hmm.
> Long results pages can make pagination cleaner and aid in quick navigation.
I'm not adverse to a bit of scrolling :D but we need to balance page
load times. A single result comes with perhaps 10 or so thumbnail
images, so the number of image requests rockets once you start to show
more than 25 results
--
Jay Caines-Gooby
j...@gooby.org
+44 (0)7956 182625
twitter: jaygooby
skype: jaygooby
gtalk: jayg...@gmail.com
AIM: jaygooby
Tom Coady
> I'm not adverse to a bit of scrolling :D but we need to balance page
> load times. A single result comes with perhaps 10 or so thumbnail
> images, so the number of image requests rockets once you start to show
> more than 25 results
>
I agree, scrolling is good, paging bad, hence FF plugins like autopager
which seem to load JIT :)
I'm seeing a trend to seeing "view all" next to "next".
This was also proved "best" by a recent A B landing study via google.
Danny Hope
> …I like the variation where
> you split popular letters into to two or more sections. Hmm. I wonder
> how confusing it is for the pagination model to change in this way
> though (i.e. you might used to seeing A B C D, but then one day you
> make too many Bs and suddenly you start to see A Ba Be C D). Hmm.
It sounds like you need to get some test data and mock-up what people
are likely to see, based on common search terms.
>> Long results pages can make pagination cleaner and aid in quick navigation.
>
> I'm not adverse to a bit of scrolling :D but we need to balance page
> load times. A single result comes with perhaps 10 or so thumbnail
> images, so the number of image requests rockets once you start to show
> more than 25 results
Sounds like more of an optimisation task than an interface design issue.
Also, http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart/461099066/sizes/l/
--
Regards,
Danny Hope
http://linkedin.com/in/dannyhope
Twitter: yandle
07595 226 792
Jay Caines-Gooby
>> I'm not adverse to a bit of scrolling :D but we need to balance page
>> load times. A single result comes with perhaps 10 or so thumbnail
>> images, so the number of image requests rockets once you start to show
>> more than 25 results
>
> Sounds like more of an optimisation task than an interface design issue.
I hear ya. We've toyed with building the multiple thumbnails as a
separate single image, but at this stage its just not going to happen.
> Also, http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart/461099066/sizes/l/
Sweet! I'd joked that we needed a set ofEncyclopedia Britannica in the
office to see how they do it.
--
Jay Caines-Gooby
j...@gooby.org
+44 (0)7956 182625
twitter: jaygooby
skype: jaygooby
gtalk: jayg...@gmail.com
AIM: jaygooby
Robert Douglas
front of some users/UX practitioners. It's the only way.
For my tuppence worth, I'd keep the alphabet *real* simple with:
-- all letters showing as individual letters ( A B C ...)
-- grey out letters with no results
-- add number of results next to the letters so users know what to
expect when they click (eg. A[15] B[2]...)
-- lazy load the results as user scrolls down within a letter's page
(to reduce page weight/load)
Groupings of letters, either A-G or Ae-Ak, are very dufficult for
people to grok because they have to mentally imagine which group the
letter they're after lives in. Heavy cognitive load.
Nice, interesting problem to have though. Hope you're enjoying the
challenge!
Robert Douglas
http://anucreative.com
http://twitter.com/anucreative
Ben Sauer
remembered!!
Jay: what did you end up going with?
B